


A Fool's Truth (FMA AU)

by the_musical_alchemist



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Eventual tododeku and kiribaku and momojirou and tsuchako, Everyone's got an FMAB equivalent character but I'm tweaking things and changing some ships, Fullmetal Alchemist AU, I'll add more characters as they appear as well, It will be a series of drabbles and one shots within the same universe, Multi, inevitable angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 17:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12215715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_musical_alchemist/pseuds/the_musical_alchemist
Summary: Things go awry when Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou attempt human transmutation. Now, with Izuku missing his right arm and left leg, and Katsuki's soul bound to a suit of armor, they search for a way to get their original bodies back. That is, if they're able to work together at all.“Give him back,” he says, his voice catching on the last word. The pain is overwhelming. He can barely hear his own voice over the pounding in his ears. “Equivalent exchange? I’ll give you whatever you want. Just give Kacchan back!”FMA:B AU!





	1. Intro: Transmutation

A bolt of pain lances through Izuku’s body and sends him tumbling to the floor. His cheek presses into something warm and sticky.

Blood. Far too much blood.

“K-Kacchan,” he gasps, his fingers curled over the chalk circle. He sputters out a cough. There’s a horrible throbbing in his thigh that travels all the way up to his head. His deafening heartbeat crashes through his ears.

He lifts his head, his eyes moving across every dark corner of this basement in search of his friend. Cold terror fills his veins.

Katsuki Bakugou is gone.

Blackness tugs the edges of Izuku’s vision from the pain. He brings a trembling hand over his knee. His fingers graze a slippery stump.

His heart skips in his chest.

_No, no, no. This isn’t happening._

Suddenly, the air is too heavy, too thick, too much. His chest feels as if it’s about to burst. He curls in on himself, screaming until his throat can no longer take it.

His leg.

Kacchan.

_Kacchan._

With what little strength he has left, Izuku drags his body across the blood-soaked transmutation circle. Through a haze of tears, he can see the mangled black monster they’d created crying out in the very center.

A glint of silver catches the corner of his eye. His father’s old suit of armor. A vintage souvenir that’s collected dust over the years. An idea strikes Izuku.

It’s crazy – it will probably never work…

“Give him back,” he says, his voice catching on the last word. The pain is overwhelming. He can barely hear his own voice over the pounding in his ears. “Equivalent exchange? I’ll give you whatever you want. Just  _give Kacchan back_!”

He yanks the suit of armor down by its ankle and it crashes to the floor.

This is stupid. This could make everything worse. His leg was the price he paid for playing God. Why won’t he give up? What else will be taken from him?

Why doesn’t he care?

 _It’s not for me_. He drags his bloody finger over the armor’s cold metal.  _Kacchan. I need to save Kacchan._

When the circle is complete, he takes a deep breath. It has to work. If it doesn’t, if Kacchan is really lost for good…

With an aching body, a hammering heart, and a face wet with blood and tears, Izuku grits his teeth and brings his palms together.

Light crackles from around his joined hands. There’s a flash of white, and a ribbon of hope weaves through Izuku’s roiling stomach, before everything goes black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, friends! If you're familiar with my Hunger Games AU for the FMA characters, this is going to be structured just like that! Thank you for reading. And thank you to leopah for being my beta! I adore her. Check out her amazing stuff!


	2. count your blessings while you can

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happens a bit after the first drabble. Katsuki's PoV. I hope you like it. Thank you to Leopah for being my beta! <3

For Katsuki, the first night is the hardest.

Sleep beckons him like a dull shadow chasing the light. It’s familiar, it’s fleeting, and when darkness comes, it disappears. He keeps his gaze fixed on the clock mounted on the wall of the Urarakas’ guest room. What kind of timeless hell has he found himself in? He hadn’t known of the eternities that passed while people slept. Dreams were a luxury he hadn’t realized he was supposed to cherish.

Deku’s been asleep beside him for, God, how many hours now? It felt like at least ten years. But the clock tells Katsuki it’s only been about three hours.

He curls his too-big hands into fists, digging his fingertips into the leather that would be the meat of his palms if there were a body in this armor. He feels nothing. It’s as if every living part of him has been numbed, but his mind has been left untouched.

Truth is a cruel mistress.

Deku gets off with nothing but a missing arm and leg while Katsuki’s stuck counting the goddamn cracks in the ceiling because his mind won’t,  _can’t_ , shut off.

 _Fucking_  Deku. The bastard always needed to follow Katsuki around like a moth drawn to a flame – and Katsuki certainly was the most brilliant of flames. Now look where all of his pride landed them. If Deku had just minded his own business…

* * *

_Everything happened far too fast. Katsuki was eight. Mom fell sick – Mom didn’t get better. She was buried six feet in the ground while grownups wrapped their suffocating arms around Katsuki, whispering how sorry they were and how much they loved him. They wept as if they understood what it felt like to feel like to watch your heart, stomach, and lungs be locked in a shiny black box and buried right in front of you._

_Deku cried because he’s always been a damn crybaby. But he never pretended to know what Katsuki was going through. Sure, Deku’s dad had died when he was a baby, but it wasn’t like the idiot even remembered him. And Deku knew that. He didn’t placate Katsuki with empty words like everyone else did. He just stood next to him the entire time._

_“Leave me alone!” Katsuki shouted. Tears welled in his eyes but he dragged his chubby hands across his face before Deku could see. “I don’t need you!”_

_“I know, Kacchan,” he said, sniffling._

_“You stupid, good-for-nothing moron,” Katsuki croaked. His chest hitched. “I hate you.”_

_“Okay, Kacchan.”_

_Neither of them spoke to each other for the rest of the day and Deku didn’t leave his side until his mom told him it was time to leave. She’d placed a gentle hand on Katsuki’s head and talked to him. Her words words had swept away from him like smoke in the air._

_He drifted through the day as if his head was filled with helium and he was rising up, up, up, up – and away from all this. Long blank spaces would later fill his memory, giving him nothing but fragments of the day to look back on. The feelings, though? Those never left. It was hard to forget what it felt like to be completely gutted, after all._

_Months went by before the grim reaper reared his ugly head again. His scythe was Dad’s grief and it sliced clean through him. Without Mom, he wilted like a blossom in the winter. His body followed his withering mind into oblivion. Eventually, both gave up. He died of grief like he had nothing more to live for – not even his love for his son could keep him alive. Katsuki will never forget how pathetic it was._

_But that didn’t stop him from blubbering like a baby._

_He moved in with Deku and Mrs. Midoriya after that. As if his personal hell couldn’t get any worse._

_He learned early in life that people came and went, but science never changed. He had a natural aptitude for alchemy. Everyone praised him. The word “prodigy” was thrown around a lot. Nobody, not even Deku, was better than him._

_Maybe he couldn’t have his mom and dad. Maybe he’d have to accept a life where everything good was taken from him. But alchemy was science and science was irrevocable. So he would read every book that existed and succeed at everything that had been called impossible. Katsuki Bakugou would be the greatest alchemist in the world._

* * *

“Katsuki?”

Ochako’s voice breaks through his reverie. He casts a glance in the direction of her voice. Her small hands grip the door as she stands just outside the room in her pajamas. Her brows are knitted in concern.

“What do you want?” he says. It’s too damn late for her to still be awake. Don’t she and her parents have patients to work on tomorrow morning?

She steps inside, leaving the door ajar. A crack of light from the hallway traces her features as she moves closer. He can see that her big eyes are bloodshot, like she’s been crying.

What the fuck does  _she_  have to cry about?

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” she asks.

Though Katsuki is sitting down and she’s on her feet, the two are at eye level. This stupid hulking suit of armor makes him feel like a freak of nature.

“Why aren’t  _you?_ ” he shoots back. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“I…” She stops herself, sighs, and shakes her head. She looks over at Deku’s sleeping form. “How is he?”

When Katsuki came to in his new body, Deku had been unconscious. There was a lot to process – the weightlessness he felt, his body, the blood-soaked floor, whatever in the motherfucking  _hell_  was left wheezing and twitching in the middle of their circle – but all of his thoughts turned to Deku when he saw him slumped on the floor, covered in blood and missing two of his limbs.

Mrs. Midoriya was away for the weekend for work. She’d left Deku and Katsuki alone on the condition that they’d go straight to the Urarakas next door if anything happened, not that she expected anything to. Once he was able to move, the first thing Katsuki did was carry Deku’s useless body over there. They were doctors, after all. They’d know what to do.

_“The dumbass won’t wake up!” Katsuki yelled when Mr. and Mrs. Uraraka took Deku from his arms and set to work. He attributed the terror rushing through him to the fact that he no longer had a body. It had nothing to do with whether or not Deku was going to be okay._

They’d tended to his wounds and took care of him. A few hours ago, they brought him in here and tucked him into bed.

He still hasn’t woken up.

“Quiet,” Katsuki finally answers. “For once in his damn life.”

Ochako frowns and for a horrifying second he thinks she’s going to start crying. Instead, she swallows and drops her gaze. He watches her fumbling fingers worry the hem of her nightgown.

“How are  _you_ , Katsuki?” she asks softly.

He snorts. “I’m a fucking suit of armor.”

She gets down on the floor in front of him, sitting back on her heels. Suddenly, she’s much too small. Even though they’re both twelve, she may as well be a little kid next to his massive body.

“Why did you do it?” she asks like a breath she’d been holding. Her voice breaks. “Why couldn’t you guys have just talked to me or Miss Inko or  _anybody_? Why did you have to do something so reckless?”

Because he wasn’t supposed to fail. Because all the other alchemists who attempted human transmutation were weak. They’d miscalculated or just weren’t smart enough. Katsuki was better than them. He was supposed to succeed at the impossible. Be the greatest alchemist in the world.

 _I just wanted Mom back_ ….

“I told Deku I was going to be the first alchemist to perform a successful human transmutation,” Katsuki says vacantly. “I just couldn’t shut up about being the best.”

And when the day finally came, and Deku tried to stop him, Katsuki was overrun with fear that this was something much bigger than him. It was why he forced himself to go through with it – to prove he was strong enough. The greatest alchemist in the world would never back down.

“If I can’t stop you,” Deku said, “then I’m going to help you.”

Why had Katsuki  _let him_?

“It would have worked if he didn’t get in my way,” he tells Ochako. He barely hears the words coming from his own mouth.

Ochako looks back over at Deku. They’ve all known each other their entire lives. Ochako may as well be their sister for how long they’ve been together. Maybe she feels left behind. After all, it must be shitty to find out your best friend committed alchemy’s cardinal sin when he’s dumped at your doorstep nearly dead and with half as many limbs as he had the last time you saw him.

Katsuki might feel sorry for her if he knew how to feel anything but anger and fear right now.  

“I couldn’t sleep,” she tells him. “I’m sure Mom and Dad can’t either. This is…a lot.”

“Sorry to inconvenience you,” Katsuki says bitterly.

She sighs. “That’s not what I mean and you know it.” She rests her hand over his. He hates the way he can feel the hope draining from him when he doesn’t feel it. Her big eyes search his expressionless face. “You can’t sleep like this, can you?”

Katsuki yanks his hand out of her grasp. Ochako’s arms fall to her sides, but she doesn’t look upset with him or even hurt by it. Maybe she knows him too well to take it personally.

Damn her for that.

“No,” he says. He tightens his fist but the lack of pressure is unsatisfying and does nothing to distract him from the emotions tumbling through his hollow chest. “So take this from me. Get some rest, round-face. It’s pissing me off that you’re awake by choice.”

She studies him with the same careful eyes he’s seen her use on a complicated piece of machinery. He can almost see the gears clicking and turning in her head as she tries to decipher the mess that Katsuki has made of his life and the places she and Deku fit into it all.

“I’m sorry, Katsuki,” she says.

“I don’t want your pity.”

“It’s not pity.” She stands up, coming into his field of vision. Her lips quirk into a sad smile. Katsuki hates it. “I’ll head to bed now. Come find me if you need me.”

When she leaves, Katsuki’s gaze returns to the clock.

Only a few minutes have gone by.

He leans his head back against the wall. Just like this, the night stretches on.


End file.
